The IACP, in partnership with the Childhood Violent Trauma Center at the Yale Child Study Center, supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, has launched an online training series to help prepare frontline officers to identify and respond to children exposed to violence. The training series will enable patrol officers to identify and interact with children of all ages who have been exposed to violent and potentially-traumatic events using both developmentally-appropriate and trauma-informed approaches.  This interactive course combines a number of learning styles and incorporates scenarios for participants to test new knowledge and practice new skills. This course has been certified by IADLEST as part of the National Certification Program for continuing education credits in more than 35 states.

Participants will learn principles and best practices for on-scene/acute responses; death notification to children; and responding to the needs of children at scenes of domestic violence. Course instruction and materials include what traumatic stress reactions may look like on scene; police responses to traumatic stress in children of different ages; commonly asked questions from children and sample police responses; and common issues for caregivers and police.

This course is at no cost to law enforcement and their multidisciplinary partners. Register here
 

Crime victim compensation programs have different regulations in every state. Our Frequently Asked Questions guide can help you answer general questions about victim compensation.

This card is meant to be customized by individual law enforcement agencies. Agencies can print these cards for officers to give to victims when officers explain that victims may be eligible to have certain crime-related expenses reimbursed by crime victim compensation and to help connect victims with advocates.

Community relations is an important part of law enforcement. These sample blog posts, social media tip sheet, and mock webpage support law enforcement agencies to connect with their communities and spread the word about victim compensation.

This webinar recording explains what victim compensation is, why law enforcement needs to be aware of it, and what law enforcement can do to support victims and compensation programs. Chief Fred Fletcher (ret.) and Scott Beard, the Deputy Director of South Carolina’s victim compensation program, bring their decades of experience to discuss available resources and strategies for improving law enforcement’s knowledge and understanding of crime victim compensation as well as real-world examples of how it works.

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Conflict between police and their communities manifests itself in many ways. Perhaps the most profound type of conflict is one that involves physical violence between the police and members of the public. Such conflict causes distrust, strains police-community relations, and raises concerns about police legitimacy. Past research has extensively covered police use of force, including detailed case studies and the influence of various factors, including case law, administrative protocol, and the characteristics of the involved parties. However, research on violence against the police has been less prevalent. Even less prevalent has been research on one type of assault on the police, ambush attacks.

IACP, in partnership with CNA, sought to fill this void in research on ambushes of police and use the knowledge gained to inform policy, training, and operational practices in U.S. police departments. The project team reviewed existing research and literature on the topic, analyzed data sets of assaults on police officers, presented the research review and data analysis to a series of focus groups comprised of leading practitioners and academics specializing in officer safety, and produced and disseminated reports, guides, and other materials based on research, analysis, and focus group findings to the field. The project team produced and contributed to:

• The first comprehensive analysis of data on ambush attacks on the police
• A series of practitioner-focused, downloadable materials summarizing project findings
• Informative articles in IACP's Police Chief Magazine
• Policy guidelines for preventing and protecting against ambush attacks

This project is now inactive, but the resources can be downloaded on this webpage.

There was a time when law enforcement calls involving youth were nearly always for adolescent boys. Girls were rarely arrested, and when they were, it was usually for non-violent “status” offenses such as running away, truancy, or curfew violations. But this has changed. Although juvenile crime overall has decreased in the past decade, arrest rates for girls have declined at a much slower rate on most crimes and status offenses, compared to boys. At the same time, research on the adolescent brain and childhood trauma has given us new insights into juvenile behavior, including ways that girls differ from boys. It is becoming clear that some juvenile justice approaches geared to boys may not be as effective with girls and, in some cases, may even make the situation worse. The IACP has developed a number of training, tools, and resources for law enforcement to enhance police response to adolescent girls.

There was a time when law enforcement calls involving youth were nearly always for adolescent boys. Girls were rarely arrested, and when they were, it was usually for non-violent “status” offenses such as running away, truancy, or curfew violations. But this has changed. Although juvenile crime overall has decreased in the past decade, arrest rates for girls have declined at a much slower rate on most crimes and status offenses, compared to boys. At the same time, research on the adolescent brain and childhood trauma has given us new insights about juvenile behavior, including ways that girls differ from boys. It is becoming clear that some juvenile justice approaches geared to boys may not be as effective with girls and, in some cases, may even make the situation worse. The IACP has developed a number of training, tools and resources for law enforcement to enhance police response to adolescent girls.

To access course, please click here.